thinking like a Christian

Christianity & Capitalism: The End and Economic Imagination

As some of you will know, I’ve been working this year for the Sydney University Evangelical Union, a student organisation. As part of my role I’m running a seminar at the EU’s Annual Conference. The topic this year is eschatology. To my delight, I’ve been able to convince the senior staff to allow me to run a seminar which nicely combines my studies in political economy with my love for theology & Christian living. My topic (as above): Christianity & Capitalism: The End and Economic Imagination.

I’ve had to write a blurb, so that the students can decide whether or not they want to come to my seminar. Here it is. Let me know what you think!

Wealth is a problem. On this the Old Testament Law and prophets, the New Testament writers and Jesus himself are unambiguous. How, then, are Christians to live in a world where endless economic growth and rising living standards are the norm, where social outcomes are measured by dollar-value?

If you’re a Christian living in a capitalist world (hint: that’s you), you need to wrestle with these questions. Exploring ‘the End’ according to capitalism and ‘the End’ according to the Bible, we’ll see how God’s economy of abundant grace can free us to imagine economic practices that promote human flourishing.

A seminar for anyone who has ever wondered what the Bible has to say about wealth. Students of economics, business and political economy may find themselves challenged to rethink everything they think they know!

could you perhaps record it? youtube? vimeo? also, can’t remember if I recommended it already, but here is Debt, which is primarily concerned with religion and the morality of debt: http://mhpbooks.com/books/debt/

Richard Glover

I'm a Christian in my 20s, living in Newtown, Australia. The struggle that characterises me is to let Jesus of Nazareth shape my life. This blog is an attempt to think about what being a follower of Jesus looks like, for me and for God's Church, in a world marred by evil; a world in which it can be hard to find a moral code that makes sense of our bizarre (yet beautiful!) existence.

"I went to bed last night and my moral code got jammed. I woke up this morning with a frappachino in my hand."